The present disclosure relates to systems which assist with the movement of patients who are partially or completely incapacitated. More specifically, the disclosure is related to a system coupled to a patient support apparatus and configured to reposition a patient relative to the longitudinal length of the patient support apparatus.
From time to time, patients on a patient support apparatus such as a hospital bed who are partially or completely incapacitated need to be moved or repositioned. For example, in some cases, a patient may have slid down, slumped, or otherwise moved toward a foot end of the patient support apparatus, for example. This may result from inclination of a head section of the patient support apparatus and the patient may need to be repositioned toward the head end of the patient support apparatus when the head section is lowered back down. In other cases, a patient may need to be moved to a different bed.
In repositioning or moving a patient, a caregiver such as a nurse, for example, will grip the patient and pull, slide, or roll the patient to the new position. For larger patients, the caregiver may summon assistance from other nurses, assistants, orderlies, or the like. In some cases, a piece of fabric referred to as a draw-sheet may be positioned under the patient and used by the caregivers as an aid to repositioning the patient. The draw-sheet may be gripped by the caregiver(s) and used to lift and reposition the patient or the sheet may be pulled over the surface of the patient support apparatus to reposition the patient.